Travel cards for public transport in the Netherlands. All about public transport in Holland

You can fly to Holland by plane, train, bus. There are several types of public transport in the country itself: railway, metro, bus. You can also use the services of a taxi, car rental or rent a bicycle.

How to get to Holland?

The most popular form of transport to travel to Holland is by plane. But if you are afraid of flying, you can take the bus or train.

by plane

There is no shortage of flights from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Amsterdam.

Direct flights offer:

Russian air carrier "Aeroflot";
Dutch KLM.

The cost of round-trip tickets for flights from Moscow: from 14.4 to 17.8 thousand rubles, from St. Petersburg - from 13 thousand.

Flights with transfers from Moscow and the Northern capital are available from the following companies:

Austrian Airlines with a change in Vienna;
Air France - in Paris;
Lufthans - in Munich or Frankfurt;
Swiss - in Zurich;
Сzech Airline - in Prague;
Finnair - in Helsinki;
airBaltics - in Riga;
Estonian Airs - in Tallinn;
Turkish Airlines- in the Stambul.

The time of such a connecting flight is longer, but the cost of tickets for flights is significantly lower.

Aircrafts of which companies can fly to Amsterdam from major Russian cities:

from Yekaterinburg, Perm, Ufa, Samara, Kazan, Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod– Czech Airlines with a change in Prague;
from Samara, Nizhny Novgorod - Lufthansa via Frankfurt am Main;
from Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don - Austrian Airlines with a change in Vienna;
from Yekaterinburg - Finnair via Helsinki;
from Kaliningrad - Air Baltic with a change in Riga;
from Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Sochi, Kazan, Yekaterinburg - Turkish Airlines via Istanbul.

From other cities, you can choose a plane to Holland, which will fly through Moscow connecting flight Aeroflot.

By train and bus

The disadvantage of this method of transportation is a significant amount of time that you have to spend in a train car or on a bus. But there is also an advantage: the route passes through European countries. You will get a lot of impressions from visiting Germany and Poland, the cities of Cologne, Berlin and Warsaw.

Trains from Moscow to Amsterdam depart twice a day from Belorussky railway station. In 36 hours of travel you will cover a distance of 2596 kilometers and cross the borders of five countries: Holland, Russia, Germany, Belarus and Poland. The cost of train tickets: from 7 thousand one way.

Buses from Moscow to Amsterdam depart from the Airport on Tuesdays and Fridays. The route is not too different from the one on which there is a train but the travel time is 2 days. Therefore, despite the comfortable conditions, the trip may seem more tiring. Bus ticket price: from 146 euros one way.

Intercity communication in Holland

There are several options for traveling between cities in Holland.

Train. Trains in Holland are modern rolling stock with a clear timetable. Intercity and suburban trains run at hourly intervals until 2:00. Rail transport is the most convenient way to travel in Holland. Approximate prices: from Amsterdam to Haarlem - 5 euros, to Rotterdam - 15 euros.
Taxi. Taxis in Holland can be ordered by phone or use the services of special parking lots. Approximate rates: 2 euros - minimum, each kilometer above the minimum - 1.5 euros.
Car rental. In order to rent a car, you must have driving license with experience of at least a year, age - from 21 and two credit cards. Rental conditions and prices vary from company to company.
Intercity buses. Buses in Holland are highly comfortable. But the bus drivers are not very punctual. Therefore, it is better to prefer other modes of transport for moving around the country.

best view intercity transport in Holland, it is considered to be railway: trains travel strictly following the schedule, they are comfortable, and the cost of the trip is low. Taxis are quite an expensive mode of transport if you travel long distances. Renting a car is fraught with some difficulties: not every person will be able to get a car for rent. Buses are very comfortable, but they drive “anyhow”, they are late and delayed on the way.

Public transport in the Netherlands

The most common form of transport in the cities of Holland is a bicycle. All conditions have been created for cyclists: special roads with road markings and traffic lights are equipped, at every step there are machines for renting two-wheeled vehicles. Renting a bike will cost you about $10-13 per day.

Major cities have subways. It is important to know the name of the stop where you will get off and not get confused with transfers. To travel by metro, you need to purchase a single ticket, valid for all types of urban transport.

You can move within the city by bus: to stop it, you must vote.

Some cities drive tourist buses with special excursion routes passing through the places of the main attractions.

A ride on the bright, colorful Dutch trams will cheer you up. Just hold on tight to the handrails - the drivers of this type of transport love to drive and sharply enter turns.

So let's recap:

it is more convenient to get to Holland by plane, and more interesting by bus;
between cities it is better to travel by train, and within the same city - by bicycle;
be sure to ride on the "fun" tram and tourist buses;
It is better to purchase a single travel card for all modes of transport.

The transport system in Holland works smoothly and clearly. Therefore, there should not be any problems with movement around the country.

Transport outside the urbanized part of the Netherlands is represented mainly by trains, as well as buses. In large cities, of course, there are other types of passenger Vehicle: metro, tram, taxi, water transport. This article is an overview of the various means of transportation in the Netherlands: trains, buses, cars, bicycles, taxis. If the purpose of your trip is the capital of the Netherlands, then you can read our material "Transport in Amsterdam".

Train

The Netherlands is a densely populated and urbanized country, so it is well developed railway transport. In the western part of the country, the rail network is more than just a major urban network, with up to 12 trains per hour on the main lines. There are two main types of trains: intercity fast trains and trains that stop at all stations. At the same time, fast trains are not as fast as in some other countries, they have more stops. With the exception of a few rural lines, on a working day, trains run at least every half an hour.

In some directions, in particular from Amsterdam to the north, there are no more direct routes, you will have to make a transfer (for example, in Amersfoort). Due to the fact that trains go one after another, delays become common. However, trains are late by no more than 5-10 minutes. Nederlandse Spoorwegen (National Railway Company) boasts good punctuality - 80 - 85% (this is the percentage of trains departing / arriving within 3 minutes of the scheduled time). Trains during peak hours, especially in the morning, can be overcrowded. Nederlandse Spoorwegen serves most routes. Some local lines in the north and east of the country are served by Syntus and.

A ticket can be bought at all stations, regardless of the operator, and there is a single national fare system everywhere. Tickets can be purchased at automatic ticket offices by paying with coins or a bank card (the only accepted credit card is Maestro). Only large stations have regular ticket offices, and a ticket in them will cost 0.5 € more. There are two types of ticket vending machines: the old version, with a greenish LCD display and 2 lines, and the new one, with a large touch screen. The latter has a menu on English language. If you still have problems buying a ticket at such a box office, ask someone for help: almost all Dutch people speak English and will certainly help you.

Buying a ticket in advance will not reduce its price, as is the practice in some countries. The ticket price is standardized and depends only on the distance. Please note that you can pre-purchase an open date ticket that will be valid as soon as you step on the platform, but it will not be cheaper - this is just for the convenience of passengers. You can buy round trip tickets (called retour, there will be savings: the price of a one way ticket will be 60% of the price of round trip tickets), but you can buy tickets only on the day of departure, or in the case of a weekend retour (the same ratio in price) - for the period between 19:00 Friday and 4:00 Monday. As in many countries, there is some difference between first and second class. The cost of a second class ticket is 60% of the price of a first class ticket. The main advantage of the latter is the smaller number of passengers in the car, and the seats and aisles are usually wider there.

For foreigners, such a mistake is typical: they, without hesitation, buy a ticket from vending machines with a 40 percent discount. However, a special discount card is required to use this ticket. However, you can use the discount card of another person.

There are no conductors on the trains, as in some other countries. If you buy a ticket already on the train, you will have to pay for it regular price plus 35 euro fine. If you had a good reason for this (for example, the machine did not work), the fine can be reimbursed, but only after a written application to the NS office. Guides in such cases are not allowed to act on their own, which causes sharp criticism in society, but for now everything remains the same. If you have neither money nor a passport, you will be arrested. And the more you argue with the conductor, the sooner he will turn to the help of the traffic police.

There are night trains between Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague, Leiden, Schiphol, Amsterdam and Utrecht, which is very convenient for lovers nightlife and airport passengers. They go all night long, every hour in all directions. However, the journey from Rotterdam to Utrecht on such a train will take approximately two hours (40 minutes during the day). On the night from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday there are also trains to North Brabant: you can go to 's-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Tilburg and Breda.

Railway tickets

If you plan to travel around the Netherlands mainly by railway, consider purchasing a Eurail pass with the Benelux package. This will allow you to make any trips within Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg within a few days. You can purchase the Eurail Benelux Pass for 3 days for 187 euros, 4 days for 224 euros, 5 days for 260 euros, 8 days for 353 euros.

Europeans who are not eligible to purchase Eurail passes should look for Inter Rail Passes, which will also allow them to travel on trains at a discount.

If you are only going to be in the Netherlands for one day and want to see as many sites as possible and plan to travel by train, you should purchase the NS-Dagkaart. This is an all-inclusive ticket that allows you to use all public transport in the Netherlands for a fixed fee. Various sales promotions are held every month travel cards. You can buy a day ticket for 13 or 16 euros. You can track stocks at Treinreiziger.nl.

It's a little adventurous to take advantage of the added benefits of a "off-peak pass" or "annual pass" (such tickets are typically held by students or government employees). This is how you can save on travel costs without having any travel card at all: just find a student with an "OV -Kaart" (annual public transport pass) or one with a "Voordeelurenkaart" who travels in the same direction as You. He has the right to take up to three fellow travelers with him, who are also entitled to purchase tickets with a 40 percent discount. You must pre-purchase railway ticket at a discount, and finding someone who goes to the same place as you will not be a problem. This ticket is valid only on weekends, on weekdays from 9:00, on days national holidays and summer in July-August. When the conductor asks you to show your ticket, your fellow traveler must show his pass. Who exactly it will be does not matter, as long as you agree with him to pass the control.

Bus

In the Netherlands, traveling by bus for long distances is inconvenient. Buses tend to be used to travel to small towns or small regions rather than between them. Usually it is convenient to travel by bus for distances of no more than 10 km.

Besides, bus routes have a big drawback - they are not straight. For example, if you want to get from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, then on the way you will have to stop by Schiphol, Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague and Delft.

In Amsterdam and some other large cities, public transport runs at night. As a rule, the ticket will cost more than a day ticket, or you will have to buy a special ticket in advance for night bus. In some cases, regular strippenkaart are not valid, they can only be used for daytime travel.

Automobile

Car - good way explore rural areas, especially those that cannot be reached by train, such as Valueuwe, Zeeland or the North Sea islands. Driving in the Netherlands is usually pleasant: the road network is extensive, on roads in right places there are signs, and Dutch drivers are among the least aggressive in Europe. However, this is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, so get ready for heavy traffic and traffic jams everywhere except the northern part of the country.

Driving rules in the Netherlands

When driving around the city, when crossing cycle lanes when turning, always give way to cyclists. If you find yourself in an accident involving a cyclist, you are automatically found guilty (until proven otherwise). If you want to see only the cities, it is better not to take a car. Due to limited road capacity and parking difficulties, most major cities are actively phasing out cars. Buses on the route have priority when leaving the stop, so be careful as they may enter the lane directly in front of you, confident that you will give way.

There are many road signs, but it is very useful to have a map, especially in cities where there are many one-way streets, and it is not always easy to get from one part of the city to another. Be careful not to drive in the dedicated bus lane (often labeled Lijnbus or Bus) or bike lanes marked with a bicycle or reddish asphalt. Also, do not drive in reverse lanes (Spitsstrook) if a red "X" is lit above them - this sign indicates that you cannot use this lane at this time.

Movement is right-handed. The speed limit in residential areas is 50 km/h, and in some areas it does not exceed 30 km/h. Outside the city, you can drive at a speed of 80 km / h (as on most northern roads). On some local roads, speed is limited to 60 km/h. On motorways, the speed limit is 120 km/h, with the exception of some highways where the speed limit is 100 km/h. During rush hours, most roads have signs showing the current speed limit.

Throughout the country, the speed of passing cars is controlled by the police. Pay Special attention on the sign "Trajectcontrole": it means that the road you are driving on has an automatic tracking system average speed car over a long distance.

Alcoholic drinks and driving are incompatible, this is strictly monitored. The breathing tube test is often used, either randomly (you pull over at the curb and a police officer thinks it necessary to test you for alcohol content) or all in a row (for example, the police on the highway have check Point alcohol test). A solid yellow line next to the sidewalk means no stopping, while a broken yellow line means no parking. At some intersections, the road has a broken line that looks like shark teeth - it means that you must give way to other vehicles.

Note that the police also use covert patrols, especially on highways. They have video surveillance systems at their disposal, and it often happens that you will not be stopped immediately after breaking the rules, but will continue to follow you. If you continue to break the rules, you will be fined for all violations at once.

Breakdown and accident

If your car breaks down on the motorway, you need to walk to the nearest emergency telephone (praatpalen) on the road. They are easy to recognize: they are yellow, 1.5 meters high, with a round lid and "ears" sticking out from above. They can be used to directly contact emergency services.

If you are involved in an accident, the rules require both drivers to fill out and sign forms for their respective insurance companies. You must always have this form handy. The police must be notified if you damage public property, especially along highways, if you hurt someone, or if another driver refuses to sign an insurance claim. By fleeing the scene of an accident, you are breaking the law. If you see another driver doing this, call the police and wait for her to arrive. Telephone emergency service 112 (free, you can dial even from a disabled mobile phone); regular, non-urgent police call - 0900-8844.

gas station

Fuel is easy to find. Lots of highways along petrol stations working around the clock 7 days a week. There are more and more automatic gas stations (even along highways), where gasoline is sold for more low prices. These deserted stations accept all common debit and credit cards. All gas stations sell both gasoline and diesel fuel; all premium brands have the same octane number (they say to compensate high price, additives are added to them that increase the efficiency of the engine). LPG is sold at many gas stations along the highways, but you will never find it in residential areas. Its symbol is a green gas station icon located next to a regular black gas station icon. Do not fill your car with truck diesel fuel: the fuel is the same, but the pressure is much higher.

Parking in the Netherlands

Parking fees in the city can be quite significant. If you are going to visit Big City, especially Amsterdam, but also other big cities like Utrecht or Rotterdam, seriously consider getting there by public transport, this will avoid traffic jams and the enormous hassle of finding a parking space. In many cities, your car will either be blocked or towed away if you stand in this place for too long (or stand in a place reserved for the disabled or emergency vehicles). On the outskirts of most large cities, it is possible to take advantage of the benefits of "parking" tickets; you can park your car here cheaply and continue your trip on public transport. Please note that in Amsterdam and The Hague (however, only on weekends) public transport operates at night, with the exception of trains.

Taxi

Taxi prices in the Netherlands are quite high. Taxi drivers are licensed but do not pass a qualifying exam to prove they know the city streets well. However, such an exam is planned to be introduced in the future. All licensed taxis have a blue number.

Some drivers refuse to make short trips (costing less than 10 euros). This is illegal, but it is difficult to challenge such a refusal. The minimum price (price for landing in a taxi) is 3 euros. The maximum fee is based on meter readings. The cost of waiting is 0.35 euros per minute. If you agree on a price in advance, then you need to pay this amount, or the one that the meter shows, whichever is lower. It is against the law to get into a taxi without having enough money to pay for the trip, so it is advisable to agree on a price in advance.

Bike

In the Netherlands, cycling is much safer than in other countries, due to the presence developed infrastructure: cycle paths, cycle lanes and signposted cycle routes. Below are a few things that a cyclist in the Netherlands needs to be aware of.

Cycle lanes and cycle lanes are marked with a round blue sign showing a white bicycle, its image on the pavement or red pavement. You must drive exclusively in these lanes.
Cyclists are required to obey the same road signs as drivers, unless there is a sign stating otherwise (for example, a picture of a bicycle under a No Entry sign).
Unlike Germany and Belgium, where in many places the rules require you to ride on the sidewalk, if there is no bike path or bike lane, ride on the road.
In some narrow streets, if there is a bike lane, mopeds can ride on it, and not, as usual, on the main part of the street.
Bicycles must be equipped with a working headlight and taillight, reflectors alone are not enough. You can be fined €40 for riding a bike in the dark without headlights. Small, battery-powered LED headlights are illegal, but are often considered acceptable by the police.
You can just ride a bike around the city and the surrounding area, with no goal to get from point A to point B. Many marked with road signs bike routes designed specifically for such occasions, most of them resemble an octagon and will return you at the end of the walk to the starting point. Some routes pass through rural areas inaccessible to cars. Signs on cycle routes are usually white with a red border and red lettering. Note that in the southern part of the Netherlands it is possible to create your own routes by linking together marked and numbered waypoints called "knooppunten".
You can take your bike with you on the train day trip to another city or region. It costs 6 euros. It is not recommended to take a bicycle with you during peak hours. There is another way out: rent it at the station itself (or nearby). To transport a bicycle, you need another ticket, which is easy to buy at automated ticket offices. If the bike is foldable, then it can be transported free of charge when folded.
You can load a tent on a bike and go on a trip across the country. To do this, you must be in shape and not be afraid of the rain. There are national long-distance cycling routes designed specifically for this type of recreation (the long-distance cycling routes of the Netherlands can be viewed on the website).

Bicycle theft in the Netherlands is a serious problem, especially around railway stations and in big cities. Never leave your bike in the parking lot near the station, use the guarded bike parking (stalling). Usually 2 locks of different types are used (for example, a lock chain and a tube lock). The point is that bike thieves tend to specialize in one type of lock or carry the tools most suited to one type of lock. If there is no special parking nearby, the bicycle should be fastened to a lamppost or something similar. Bicycle thieves simply pick up unattended bicycles and load them onto pickup trucks so that they can then safely pick the locks.
If you buy a stolen bike, this transaction will be declared illegal, and the police will arrest the buyer. If you buy a bike at a suspiciously low price (eg 10 to 20€) or in a suspicious place (usually on the street), you are legally considered to have "thought or could have thought" that the bike was stolen. In other words, not knowing the reason for selling the bike is no excuse. Sometimes even the police themselves sell stolen bikes in order to arrest potential buyers.

Studying foreign experience is an important and useful activity, it not only allows you to avoid mistakes, but also, in the case of traffic, literally helps to save people's lives. In terms of mobility, the Netherlands is interesting because in Amsterdam alone the share of cycling is 40% - few cities can boast of such results, and the country itself occupies a leading position in road safety in Europe. Thus, according to the WHO, 3.4 per 100,000 people died in road accidents in the Netherlands in 2015, and 18.9 in Russia…

By what means did the Dutch achieve such indicators of safety and ease of use of the infrastructure?

First, I would like to repeat a simple rule once again: it doesn’t matter how many inhabitants there are in the city and what their orders are. People are the same everywhere, the laws of physics are the same in all countries, but the conditions are different, and it is by changing these conditions that you can control the behavior of most people. So, with a probability of 99%, if we move a street from Rotterdam/Amsterdam/Utrecht or any other Dutch city to Russia, then we will get similar traffic safety results as in the Netherlands.

Highways

Let's go from roads to streets (who doesn't know, these concepts are very different from each other). Naturally, in the Netherlands there are car country roads. There is a division into three categories of highway: with maximum speed 130, 100 and 80 km/h. It depends on the intersections, the number of lanes and so on. On highways they lay special asphalt that allows water to pass through, so in the rain over the road there is no such spray and fog from dampness, plus better controllability of the car. The water goes into a special catchment area under the road, and then is discharged into a storm drain / ditch / natural catchment area. Alas, it is difficult to show this in the photo, so here is the tunnel of the track under the canal:

Some time ago, there was a statement in the news that driving on the side of the road was allowed in the Netherlands. This, of course, is not true. But on some highways in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam area during peak hours, they include an additional lane, which at other times acts as a shoulder. You can see it on the board above the road:

Everything is controlled by cameras.

Most highway exits are standard, however, there are also inventions of Dutch transport workers, which eventually dispersed around the world. First of all, this turborotundas, which are an improved version of standard rings:

This is how it looks live, due to the canalization of flows, traffic becomes stable and less prone to accidents.

As you can see, with such an organization, the ring passes more cars and is safer due to fewer lane changes. Now there are 419 of them in the Netherlands, while there are 20 countries in the world, from the USA to Poland, where they are used. Often the lanes have a physical separation that guides and does not give doubt about the correctness of the movement, and also so that there is no temptation to drive somehow in your own way. In addition, often intersections on the highway with a speed limit of 80 km / h are made from such turbo rings.

The photo below shows another typical interchange at the exit of the highway, where two rings are connected into one. In general, in the Netherlands, if possible, they try not to install traffic lights. It's not just about simple savings, but also about calming traffic - the driver is guaranteed to slow down in front of the ring, unlike a traffic light and a straight road. The same principle is established by the Swedish zero tolerance program for deaths, since traffic accidents at traffic lights are more severe than those at roundabouts.

There are long-distance cycling routes throughout the country, and sometimes the routes simply pass near residential areas on the outskirts, so there is a need to separate the flow of cars and people. In such cases, either punctures are made under the road with a smooth descent:

... or bicycle bridges are made, again with a smooth descent:

Although, if it so happened that the road passes through a new area, then it is either transferred or taken underground:

Streets

Unlike roads and highways, streets are a public space that is built based on the needs of pedestrians and cyclists first, and after public and private transport. Let's go from the streets to the residential area.

Streets in residential area

Public and transport functions are not so in demand here, therefore, most often, the sidewalks are not too wide and there is a limit of 20-30 km/h. There is no separate bicycle infrastructure - cyclists move in the general stream, and the road material, most often, is tiles. In addition to tiles, there are other tools to physically calm traffic, such as chicanes, or deliberate curvature of the roadway:

There are also the usual speed bumps:

… as well as elevated intersections:

There are no markings and zebras here, since the calculation is that a pedestrian can cross everywhere, plus the roadway itself is quite narrow so that two cars can hardly pass.

By the way, more and more often parking on such streets is done in the middle - the street not only benefits from this aesthetically, but also improves safety, as the driver sees the sidewalk and can react in time to a child / pedestrian / dog who decides to cross the road (cars do not block the view ).

small streets

We would call them district streets. Unlike the streets, which I will talk about below, here the cycling infrastructure often comes in the form of bike lane markings:

Often the roadway is made of a small width. So small that two cars pass only if they drive a little into the cycle lane:

Often bottlenecks are created on purpose, where one machine must pass another:

And there are just streets with the priority of cyclists (that's the monsters, right?).

Ordinary streets

Public transport and cars run on ordinary streets, the bike infrastructure is either placed on a bike path or runs as a bike lane. There are traffic lights here, and all exits from secondary streets are raised to the level of the sidewalk:

This is done for two purposes - to force the driver to slow down in front of the main road and not to force pedestrians and cyclists to go down to the level of the carriageway. Thus, there are no puddles at the crossings, the buttocks of cyclists do not suffer from curbstones, and drivers are guaranteed to slow down, look around and continue safely:

In addition, there is now a trend to raise entire sections of roads at intersections to the level of the sidewalk, creating a common space where pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are equal and independently regulate the situation:

Statistics show that such a solution is much safer than the common rules of the road.

Safety islands, of course, are actively used, they are installed along the roadway ...

... and at crossings with intersections:

Sometimes, when you need to make a safety island, but you need to keep the possibility of long vehicles passing, then the islands are made a little higher than the level of the roadway so that a bus or truck can drive a little on it:

By the way, almost all traffic lights are equipped with sensors that recognize the approach of the car:

The same ones are on the bike paths, creating a green wave for the cyclist:

If there is a cycle lane or there is no turn from the cycle path, then the stop line for cyclists is placed ahead of the car line. This was done taking into account the fact that cyclists start faster than cars, but, most importantly, this way a person does not get into the dead zone of the driver (our Ministry of Transport still rejects the proposal to introduce such markings in our country):

Sometimes cyclists can pass on a red light due to dedicated bike lanes/bike lanes. This was done for convenience so that cyclists do not dismount and do not waste energy on gaining speed (this is not for you to press the pedal):

Often, for the sake of public transport, they close the passage for personal vehicles along the street - this is the norm. In addition, the dedicated lanes on the streets are often made elevated, visually highlighting the lanes. This is also done for trams:

... and for buses:

If the tram platforms are located in the middle of the road, then the approaches are raised:

In general, complaints were received at 98% of all city traffic lights. It is likely that some are dismantled for good. So the authorities want to deal with the accumulation of cyclists at intersections during peak hours. The traffic lights that were included in the experiment are marked with signs:

And this plate says that work is underway to optimize the operation of the traffic light:

Trunk streets
Everything is simple here, it is our city planners who divide the streets into a bunch of subspecies, in the Netherlands the main street will not differ much from the usual one. Unless there may be a little more lanes, because of which there will be no unregulated transitions. In spite of everything, the street is a public area, the carrying capacity of which is not determined by the number of lanes or the maximum speed, which, by the way, is not higher than 50 km / h. It will look something like this:

One can argue for a long time that fences along roads, the abolition of crossings or the construction of off-street crossings are a panacea for road accidents, but, apparently, the world does not think so, having convenient and safe cities. By the way, traffic on the motorway at 40-50 km/h is considered a wild traffic jam in the Netherlands. There are practically no traffic jams on the streets.

Post prepared by Arkady

There are several articles on my blog dedicated to the topic “”, but as it turned out, this section raises a lot of questions from those readers who are going to visit not only Amsterdam, but also other cities of the country on their own.
Well, since a fairly large number of questions and answers to them have accumulated in the comments to the articles, I decided to combine them into a separate article that can clarify incomprehensible points.

After all, not every reader looks through the comments and ends up asking the same questions that have already been answered. In addition (to my pride), Russian-speaking employees transport system, represented by Oksana and Mikhail, periodically read our discussions and really help to solve the pressing problems of misunderstanding in questions.

Question: You can transfer money back from the travel card to bank card, if, for example, you have not spent all the money on travel and are already leaving the country and you will not need a travel card anymore?
Answer: Yes, you can, but you need to pay attention to the fact that it does not exceed 30 euros and you will have to pay 2.50 euros of administrative costs for the money back service.

Question: Please tell me, when returning money with a loss of 2.50 euros, does the chip card remain with the owner or is it taken away?
Answer: Upon return, the card itself remains with the owner - a separate amount of 7.50 euros has been paid for it, and its validity period is 5 years.

Question: If, when transferring to a similar type of transport (for example, from a bus to a bus), there is less than 4 euros on the card, then the “check-in” during the transfer will work or the machine will somehow show that the amount on the deposit is less than 4 euros , and therefore further travel as if by a hare?
Answer: When you "check-in" on the bus, 4 euros will immediately be written off as a deposit (this is the maximum cost of the bus route from the starting point to the end point) and the scoreboard will show how much money is left on the card. If the route is the maximum duration, then it turns out that part of the journey I hope that on the last section you will not fall into the clutches of controllers, as they are also people and are condescending to the mistakes of tourists, but they can “get up on the wrong foot”...

Question: Tell me, are commuter trains, for example, Asterdam - Haarlem, or can you also pay with this card or is it only for public transport in Amsterdam?
Answer: you can pay for suburban trains too, the only thing you should pay attention to is that during the “check-in” - for the train, the card must have an amount of at least 20 euros.

Question: Tell me, is it possible in the NS ticket machine in advance for a certain route and load it onto an anonymous card so as not to keep a deposit of 20 euros on it and not to buy a one-time ticket with a surcharge of 1 euro?
Answer: Let's tell of course - unfortunately it is impossible.

Question: And, when traveling on the NS train with a transfer, can you skip the next train and take the second or third, and upon arrival at the final station, do a "check out"?
Answer: If you travel by train, you can do a "check-out" within 6 hours from the moment of "check-in" without sanctions. But, if the time is closer to midnight, then you will have less than 6 hours, because all transactions are then processed and if the controller passes on the second train, then one of you will not be happy ... I would still risk missing one train, but I didn’t try two or more 🙂

Question: Is it possible to travel by OV-chipkaart from Amsterdam to Antwerp and back on the same day? Or is it only valid in the Netherlands?
Answer: works only in the Netherlands, and to get to Antwerp you need to buy a ticket at the box office.

Question: Are there any discount cards for travel to suburban trains? We plan to live in Haarlem and travel every day to Amsterdam, The Hague, Delph, etc. All this within a week. Can we somehow save on travel?
Answer: For a short stay in the Netherlands, there are no discounts for travel on trains. There are discounts, but this applies to subscriptions - monthly or annual, for children and the elderly, students, etc. You can save some money with the help of OV-chipkaart or by buying tickets online, which must be printed out. Despite the fact that they are sent to the specified email address, the e-tickets shown on the gadget (phone, iPad, etc.) are NOT travel document.

Question: Please tell me, this card valid for travel throughout the Netherlands? Let's say if I buy a card at the airport, then use it to travel to Amsterdam, there for several days using public transport (trams and metro), and then go to and use this card to travel around the city (trams and metro). Is it possible?
Answer: That's right, the OV-chipkaart card is valid for paying fares on all public transport throughout the Netherlands, with the exception of intercity buses. So you can use the card to pay for travel both in Amsterdam and in.

Question: My wife and 23-year-old son and I are flying into. Further, with a change in Leiden, we move to Hillegom. Do I need to buy 3 or is one enough, but for which you can check-in three times in a row and at the exit, respectively, check-out three times?
Answer: you need to buy for each “rider”, since it will not work to check-in three times. Officially, it is considered as if one person "entered, left, entered";

Question: I read somewhere that the action does not apply to Arriva buses. Is this true and what advice can you give on paying for Arriva trips?
Answer: Arriva's official website says that bus fares are paid for both by a ticket bought from the driver (the second one, of course, is more expensive).

Question: Who is given / how to get a discount of 20% and 40% for OV-chipkaart? If anything, I'm 60 years old.
Answer: Discounts of 20 and 40 percent are provided for holders of various subscriptions, for example, annual ones, but this, unfortunately, is not profitable for tourists (meaning the purchase of an annual subscription).

Question: The price for e-tickets e-tickets and OV-chipkaart by rail is identical, so the question is: e-tickets are bought for a specific train or the same as OV-chipkaart, that is, without time and date, and whether it needs to be printed or is it enough to show the controller on the train on the screen of the tablet/smartphone?
Answer: E-ticket The e-ticket is not tied to a specific train or location, BUT it is valid for a specific day. It must be MANDATORY printed, since the picture on the electronic device is not a travel document (information from the official website)

Question: When returning money, it must be less than 30 euros. And, otherwise, the money will not be returned at all or only 30 euros will be returned?
Answer: The money will not be returned at all, they will send you to ride until the balance drops to 30 euros.

Question: The “9292.nl” website does not say whether it is necessary to check-in and check-out twice when transferring from one Arriva bus to another, within one hour, but one amount is indicated. Or buy a ticket from the bus driver, which will be valid for an hour?
Answer: Each time, when boarding and disembarking from a bus (tram, train, metro), you must do a "check-in" and "check-out".
If within 35 minutes after the last "check-out" you take another transport, the system automatically takes into account that you have made a transfer (overstappen) and does not charge the base fare of 0.88 euros (roughly speaking - "for landing"), but only the corresponding fare for kilometers driven (they differ slightly in different provinces)

Question: I read on the Russian-language Internet that the check-in and check-out terminals on the train are different. This is true? That is, if by mistake you touch the same terminal twice, will the reserve 20 euros be automatically debited? The "check-in" and "check-out" terminals in NS and ARRIVA differ not only in color (yellow or pink), but also in some other features for "check-in"?
Answer: The "check-in" and "check-out" terminals are the same, the validators of different transport companies differ (for example, NS ARRIVA). After "check-in" at the NS terminal, you will be charged a deposit of 20 euros. If you "check-out" at the NS terminal, the deposit will be returned (minus the cost of the flight). And, if you mix up the validator and do a "check-out" at the ARRIVA terminal instead of NS, then the deposit will not be returned to you either (for them you did not "check-out") and ARRIVA will write off the deposit (for them it is considered "check -in"). Then the trip will become really expensive ... Each terminal is written from which company it is and they are quite rare nearby, but it happens (especially in big cities).

Question: Can you please tell me if the same device can be used for "check-in" and "check out" in buses and trams, or is there a special color for each procedure? And what will appear on the screen after applying the card? It's all in Dutch! How to understand that the registration was successful?
Answer: For "check-in" and "check out" in buses and trams, the devices are the same, they are located on the handrails, on each side of the door.
If you make a “check-in” when entering the transport, you will hear one beep (“beep”), and the device’s display will show the inscription “IN OK SALDO …” and how much money is on the card at the time of boarding, after debiting the deposit ( 4 euros on the bus and 20 euros on the train).
When exiting the transport, when "check out", you will hear a double beep (two "pips") and see the inscription "UIT OK SALDO …", how much was debited for the trip and the balance on the card.
And yet, when "check-in" and "check-out" the main thing is NOT to miss and attach the card to the pink logo of the reader, and not anywhere else. If a person has not made a "check-out" by mistake, then for the system he continues to travel until the balance is written off for the longest travel along this route.

Question: Please clarify, the NS website has information about the Route cart, incl. Traject Vrij Monthly ticket. As I understand it, these are tickets. Are they accessible to tourists?
Answer: Of course, a tourist can buy such a ticket, but the question is: will it be profitable for him? A monthly pass is a journey along a given route by train for a month, and this is definitely more expensive than paying with an OV-chipkaart card or buying a ticket.

Question: On one of the sites about public transport in Amsterdam I read this information: "The fare on the NS train will be the same when using a card or buying a single ticket."
Answer: The cost of a one-time train ticket will be the same as when buying it online. At the box office and in the machine, its cost will be more expensive by 1 euro.

Question: On the metro, trams and buses, you can buy a ticket for a specified period of time in the form of a paper card:

GVB 24 Hours (1 day) - 7.50 EUR
GVB 48 Hours (2 days) - 12.00 EUR
GVB 72 Hours (3 days) - 16.50 EUR
GVB 96 Hours (4 days) - 21.00 EUR
GVB 120 Hours (5 days) - 26.00 EUR
GVB 144 Hours (6 nights) - 29.50 EUR
GVB 164 Hours (7 nights) - 32.00 EUR

Did I understand correctly that if I plan to stay in Holland for a week and travel mostly by trams, then such a pass is much more profitable for me (with an additional purchase, if necessary, of a train ticket), since I do not need to spend 7.50 on a card and, possibly, 2.50 for its return.
Answer: The GVB paper card is valid only in Amsterdam and how beneficial it is depends on the intensity and distance of travel in the city. If it's only once a day and a couple of stops, then it's probably easier to buy a one-time ticket from the driver. If more often and further, then, of course, more profitable.

Question: If I need to travel from The Hague in transit through Leiden to Amsterdam: do I need The Hague-Leiden and Leiden-Amsterdam for that day and go by any train? Or can you immediately buy The Hague-Amstredam, and then get off in Leiden, take a walk, and continue the trip? Do you need any kind of validation when boarding for these tickets?
Answer: You can buy a direct ticket The Hague-Amsterdam, get off at Leiden, take a walk and then go further to Amsterdam. Tickets for a specific route are not tied to a specific place and time, they are valid for one day from 00:00 to 04:00 the next day.

Question: Do I understand correctly that it is possible only with a card or is it possible with cash? And how to return the rest of the money from OV-chipkaart? As I understand it, you can only return the amount below 30 euros minus 2.5 euros for administrative expenses.
Answer: you can either use debit card(in any vending machine on the street, at the train station or in a store), or at points of sale of OV-chipkaart cards (as a rule, they are located at railway stations, at the airport, in newspaper shops). The seller can replenish the card for the amount you need and you can pay him in cash.
You can return the balance from the card at OV-chipkaart service points

Question: Is it possible to use one OV-chipkaart card for two or is it worth taking a card for each?
Answer: It is not possible to use the OV-chipkaart card together, each passenger must have their own card (say, like in a Russian bus - you don’t take one ticket for two?)

Question: Tell me where and how to contact if I forgot to do a “check-out”?
Answer: Contact the office of that transport company. used by: GVB, Connexxion, EBS, etc.

Question: I read that for a ticket bought in Amsterdam on a tram from a conductor or driver, you also need to do "check-in" and "check-out", because it is valid for 90 minutes. That is, you can drive for some time, get off with a "check-out" and then after some time take another tram (for example, the reverse one). Is it so?
Answer: So! True, the ticket bought from the driver/conductor is valid for 60 minutes, not 90. For him, "check-in" and "check-out" are also required. Within an hour, you can transfer to another tram / bus (for example, the return one), that is, not in the amount of an hour, but within an hour from the first validation.

Question: If the child is almost 4 years old, how to prove to the controllers that he is not yet 4 years old? Do I need to carry his papers with me?
Answer: You don't need to prove your age, the inspectors take their word for it.

Question: In connection with a trip with a 10-year-old child to Leiden and Amsterdam, the following questions have accumulated:
1. Rail runner ticket for children from 4 to 11 years old - where can I buy it?
2. How much does it cost?
3. Can I use the train as well as the bus?
4. How long does it last?
5. What are the conditions of use that you need to know if you need to travel every day?
I answer point by point:
1. Children's ticket "Rail runner" can be bought at ticket offices or ticket vending machines.
2. The ticket costs 2.50 euros
3. Valid ONLY for domestic train travel (NOT valid on other public transport)
4. Valid all day
5. From the conditions of use: a child with a "Rail runner" ticket can travel alone in second-class carriages. In 1st class carriages, he can travel only when accompanied by an adult.

Question: Are the 7.5 euros paid for the purchase returned or not?
Answer: No.

If, after reading this article about, you still haven’t found the answer to your question, feel free to ask it in the comments, and I (and possibly the OV-chipkaart service employees, represented by Oksana and Mikhail) will try to answer them.

Travel is an integral part of our life. Whether it's a trip to work, excursions, to friends, or just mindless movement somewhere. If the distance is more or less decent, there is a need to use transport. Public transport in Holland is quite expensive. And at first glance, the system seems quite complicated, BUT if you look, you understand that everything is simple and convenient. It would be like this everywhere.

Route planning

So, suppose you know where and from where you want to go. Great. In Holland there is an excellent resource (even in English) 9292.nl + an application for mobile devices (for example, for an Android device). I highly recommend installing. How to use the site and the application, I think you will figure it out yourself.

Just to mention that with its help you can find out what modes of transport you can get, how many transfers you need to do, the fare, alternative routes, last flights, travel time, etc..

Be very careful with the names of streets and stops. There are consonant streets and you can lay a route in the wrong direction, respectively, and go to hell in the middle of nowhere.

Name cards, non-personalized cards, tickets..

You can purchase tickets on the spot (directly on the bus or at the railway or metro station). I note right away that, as a rule, purchasing tickets on the spot will cost you more than if you use a travel card (OV-chipkaart). It is logical that if you are going just for one day to Holland, then making a card that costs €7.5 may not make sense. But if you are traveling for a long time, it is worth getting a card. You can find two main types of cards

nominal (personal)
unnamed (anonymous)

You can buy non-personalized cards at newsstands, stations, and some stores. Personalized cards are made to order on the Internet. The release date is about a week (Although my wife and I came in 3 days). The finished card will come by mail, so check if you have written your address correctly.

The issue price for both cards is the same.

The main difference between a personalized card is that you can link a bank account to it, and when the money on the card approaches zero, it will be automatically replenished (the amount of replenishment can vary from 10 euros to 50)

Also, when you get a card, I recommend registering on this site and linking the card to your account. Then you will be able to receive statements how much and when you dashed off. If you also want to know exactly where you rode, then do not forget to enable tracking of the pages where you used the card in your account settings on www.ov-chipkaart.nl - a very useful thing.

We transport a bicycle

You can bring your bike with you on the subway and trains. Look for the corresponding sign on the doors of the car. I note that you need to buy a separate ticket for the bike. You can buy it in the machine, you buy a ticket for a bike once for the whole day. It costs about 7.50 euros. Only miniature folding bikes can be carried without a ticket. If you use ov-chipcaard, then the ticket with the bike clings to your card. When checking, the controller will also check the availability of a ticket for a bike.

Why travel by card is cheaper.

Let's take Amsterdam for example. The city is divided into zones (if you really want to, you can google a map with zones). When moving within the zone, the price is one. As you move between zones, the price goes up. Accordingly, you can travel one stop and pay different amounts depending on whether you crossed the zone or not. The system is similar to the one that operates in the German subway.

If you ride on cards, then pay for the distance that you traveled + you save time. You do not need to buy tickets, you just need to keep track of the balance on the card or activate auto-reload (and time, as you know, is also money). But driving with cards has its own characteristics, and if you don’t know them or are not careful, then the fare can skyrocket and significantly outpace ticket driving.

Features of using cards (ov-chipkaart)

In principle, the idea is extremely simple. You must track at the entrance and exit of the transport in order to pay for the distance traveled. There are machines everywhere for this. They have their own colors: for metro, buses/trams, trains. It is very important NOT to confuse these machines. All of them are signed, so just be careful.

In the Amsterdam metro, the situation is a little simpler - there are turnstiles almost everywhere, so you definitely won't forget to get wet. It is more difficult with trains, especially outside the city. When there is a platform, no fence, and only a post from the ground on which a checkin/out machine hangs, it is very easy to get past it.

Why it is so important not to forget to spit at the entrance and exit, you just need to learn how it works.

How the system works

When you make a checkIn (or simply track - as you like to say), a security deposit is debited from your card. The amount varies depending on the type of transport you are using and the distance of the route. Roughly speaking, when you check in, you are charged an amount equal to the fare from the final to the final station + an additional couple of euros as penalties (at least it was before). When you check out, you get back the amount that was written off minus the cost for the stops passed (and if you reached the final stop, the penalty amount will be returned).

Accordingly, if you forget to checkout, then nothing is returned to you - consider that you have swept from the final to the final station + some small fine.

If you decide not to track...

To do this, controllers periodically go to check cards and tickets (whether there was a check-in). Traveling without a ticket will most likely result in a fine. On some routes, the controllers sometimes do not go at all, sometimes they go as scheduled.

As far as I heard, there are craftsmen who “reflash” briefs making them considered unlimited. I don’t know how well they work, and what will happen with a detailed check of the card, more precisely what was bought on it and how it was done.

Although it is always better to pay - this is the banal responsibility and consciousness of everyone. It should be understood that in order to maintain and improve such a large system + to maintain transport in good condition and dedicated roads, the state needs to take money from somewhere.

Transport often runs on schedule.

As a rule, transport is not late and goes on schedule. If the line is undergoing scheduled maintenance, you will see a warning (both at 9292.nl and at the station). Separate roads are often made for buses. They are used exclusively for public transport, respectively, this helps to avoid traffic jams.

If an unforeseen problem occurs on a busy line, such as a railway, then you will find a notice about it. in 99% of cases, this information will be conveyed to you. If the direction is loaded, then they will also take care of the organization alternative way movement.

For example, I got this way when I was driving to Schiphol. Arriving at the station, I “happily” saw that the Schiphol direction was closed before my eyes due to problems on the line. But after 5-7 minutes, buses began to drive up to the station to deliver people to the airport. It must be admitted that the buses were free, so to speak, compensation for the inconvenience.

BUT be careful, especially when driving from the suburbs. Night trains / buses do not always go from there. So if you're late, you can be stuck there until the morning. My friend has the same experience. You can always check the timetable by 9292.nl + at stops.

Stations, directions, signs

What I really like about Holland is the excellent infrastructure. At every stop, even in the suburbs, you will find a board with information about which train, when and on which track it arrives. Stations in the suburbs, which are slightly larger, have a scoreboard and next to each track, with information about the nearest trains that will arrive on this track. The same is true for buses.

IMPORTANT. always look at the direction of the train and through which stations it passes. Sometimes I stupidly sat in the wrong direction (it happens that there are two trains at the same station on neighboring tracks, but going in different directions and on the machine in a hurry, you can sit in the wrong direction if you don’t look at the scoreboard).

Well, in conclusion, I want to say that it is worth understanding the system, then you understand how simple and logical the system is.